For a USB modem to connect successfully to a network, several parameters are required to enable the USB modem to connect to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The followings are a few exemplary parameters: subtype, usbinit, usbmodeswitch, usbtty, usbuser, usbpasswd, usbdial, etc. Conventionally, each USB modem parameter is configured by a network administrator when the USB modem initially connects to an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN). Accordingly, when a new and different USB modem is connected to the AP, the network administrator will need to erase the old USB modem configuration parameters, replace them with the new USB modem configuration parameters as related to the new USB modem.
It could be challenging for the network administrator to remember the configuration parameter values. Also, such manual configuration is prone to configuration mistakes, which may lead to inefficiency, e.g., from excessive debugging time. Moreover, it could be more difficult when the network administrator manages multiple different USB modems, because he/she will need to re-configure the USB modem parameters each and every time.
Previously, this was solved by detecting the modem device's identifier from the plugged-in device, and using the identifier as a key to configure all parameters statically. This feature takes away the hassle of any manual intervention for all supported modems, and thus allowing for a zero touch configuration.
Nevertheless, due to the introduction of new Internet modems, new vendors, and new device types to the market over time, more USB modems of the same type are being used by different countries and/or different ISPs. Therefore, a network needs to maintain multiple entries for each ISP with a unique entry per country. As the parameters needed for bringing up the USB modem become dependent on the ISP and/or country code, the aforementioned process no longer provides zero touch configurations for several such ISPs and/or countries during network deployment. Therefore, a user would need to manually configure the ISP and country for each USB modem.